Over 220 delegates gathered at Tulfarris Hotel & Golf Resort, Blessington, for HPX 2023 Paris Ready Conference, Sport Ireland Institute’s flagship professional development and learning event for high performance professionals who will impact Team Ireland’s performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games. This biannual event is organised to bring the CEO’s, Performance Directors, Coaches and Sport Science & Medical Practitioners together as a community for two days to exchange knowledge and insights to drive the performance of Irish athletes on the global stage.
This year’s event has attracted a host of speakers from within the Irish system such as David Nucifora & Dr. Jon Rudd, Performance Directors of the IRFU and Swim Ireland respectively and Neasa Russell, Sport Director with Paralympics Ireland and Team Ireland Chef de Mission for the Paris 2024 Paralympics. International keynote speakers include:
- Professor Anne Marte Pensgaard, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences/Norwegian Olympic Training Center;
- Maurits Hendriks, Head of Sport Ajax FC;
- Bertrand Daille, Head of Performance INSEP, France;
- Thierry Dumaine Assistant Head of Performance INSEP, France.
Opening the event, Dr. Úna May, CEO of Sport Ireland, said: “HPX is the our high performance event bringing the community together to collaboratively learn and share insights in preparation for Ireland’s quest on the global stage. The value of bringing all athlete support personnel together is a real advantage in Ireland and supports the wider Team Ireland ethos that transfers to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. As we collectively prepare for Paris 2024, this event is an important milestone for the Irish high performance system.”
Director of Sport Ireland Institute, Liam Harbison, added: “HPX 2023 is a key plank of the Sport Ireland Institute’s capability & expertise strategy which supports the professional development of key stakeholders in the high performance system. Utilising our established communities of practice model with CEO’s, performance directors, coaches, sport science and medical practitioners, HPX is our biannual linking of each group together to share insights from high performance expertise in Ireland and from abroad. The quality of the speakers this year is exceptional and we look forward to a great learning event.”
